Power Mac G3's Worth Rebuilding?

Just became the owner of 3 bare bones Power Mac G3's (BLUE & WHITE) one is 300mhz, the other 450mhz, and the third is unknown. All look very clean and power up just fine, but all three are missing HD, RAM, Video cards, & I have no OS readily at my disposal. I also will need an adapter for my VGA monitor.
On eBay, I see that HD, RAM, Video cards, OS are available but is this worth the effort to rebuild or not? I'm thinking of moving from PC's to MAC's and this may be a good start. I really have no need for high end home computer to do e-mail and web surfing. Any advice on where to start would be greatly appreciated.

The 450 is the one to start with first for speed. The 350 is the one to play with for flexibility. Or, move the PCI slot SCSI card to the 450 and have both in one machine. The HD in the 450 is IDE. The 9 GB Ultra2 SCSI hard drive is just that. SCSI. You can add up to 14 drives to that card or SCSI chain. External hd towers are a fun way to add drive capacity without overloading the internal power supply. Some of our G4 towers are very sensitive to power demands because they support power to the monitor as well.
We just bought six 4 gig and 9 gig drives in Seattle for $5 a piece. They still want $25 for 18 gig drives. We do not use our G3s for high storage demand tasks because of the expense of large capacity SCSI drives. Your 450 would be a great candidate for a 60 or 80 gig ATA/IDE drive that you find cheap. Look for a pair while you are at it. Having two working towers for redundancy might be worth it if you can solve the video card issue. The other approach is to buy a generation one G3 platinum computer that still has a video card in it. The Seattle recycler did not pull the card to sell for $20. Instead, the computer with card sold for $10. Go figure. Seek and yea shall find.
You will want to get a guarantee that the card is a Mac compatible video card. Recyclers who understand macs will save them to the side. I will have to Google for a recycler near you. Did I mention googling for Mac user groups? They will also have local resources and ideas.
Ji˜m

Similar Messages

Rebuilding a Power Mac G4

I recently bought a power mac g4 and am looking to rebuild it. It needs a hard drive, ram, and a video card. I am just wondering what would be the best thing to get for each of those for my new mac. Also any other instructions about how to go about doing this, as I am new to building and modifying computers, especially macs, would be greatly appreciated.

I'm looking for hardware that is not too expensive but that still delivers high performance.
So you want a Ferrari but only want to pay for a Yugo?
It is a Power Mac G4 (AGP graphics), model M7825 PowerMac G4 450MHz Drive=DVD-RAM. It also has 100MHz bus speed.
Okay, so how much are you willing to spend on this? How much did you pay in the first place? At some point you will (quickly) reach a zero sum gain where you will be paying more for individual parts than for buying a better machine outright. Upgrading maybe a piece here and maybe a piece there is understandable, but once one starts talking major rebuilds you're talking serious money. The only real financial justification for doing a major rebuild is if there is some aspect you need in an old computer (early OS boot compatibility, special ports) but really want to maximize its performance for modern compatibility. Or maybe you just already have the parts lying around at home and can do it at no cost. Oh, don't get me wrong - I dote on my 28 year old car and have invested more money in it than I could get if I were to sell it (and about once a month somebody walks up to me off the street asking if they can buy it), but you have to walk into this aware of it.
I don't know too much about video cards and RAM. Maybe $100+ depending upon what you get.
Hard drive. This computer won't recognize more than 128GB of any drive without a high capacity PCI card or a software utility (Speed Tools by Intech). Software solution costs maybe $25, but has drawbacks which you should read on their web site. PCI card is maybe $60+. You can put in a larger drive but it will only use the first 128GB, so no harm there. It will use PATA/IDE drives unless you want to buy a SATA card. Bear this in mind if you think you might want to use the drive in another computer at a later date. IMHO forget about buying a used hard drive unless you know it is only a month old and has had zero problems. I'd say if you had an old 80GB HD lying around the house this would be an ideal candidate.
Message was edited by: Limnos

With a power mac g5, is it worth it to switch to leopard ?

is it advisable for one using system 10.4.11 on a 1.8 gHz
power mac g5 to switch to leopard ?
i.e., do the gains outweigh the headaches ?

I've had no headaches on my G5. YMMV.
As to whether any upgrade is worth it, it depends on how much you want the new features and functions that come with the new software. If the features of Leopard seem worth it to you, go ahead and upgrade. As long as you have the system well prepared for the new version (applications and drivers updated, or ready to update, for compatibility with 10.5, no disk or permissions errors that can't be repared, and such) and take proper precautions during the upgrade process (if you can clone the existing OS before you upgrade, that give you the opportunity to go back if problems do arise), the chances of it going well for you are quite good.

Wha'ts my G5 Power Mac Worth?

So, I've got a general question: How much could I expect to sell my G5 Power Mac for?
Computer Summary: Its the original G5 desktop, and I got it from the first run when they were first being produced so its 8 years old. I replaced the disk drive and the HD. Its got a new 250 GB HDD (hitachi), and otherwise is running fine. It doesn't have the intel chip. The original monitor was destroyed a few years back by accident when I was moving. Oh, and I've got the wi-fi antenna for it as well.
Thoughts?

Shipping costs will be prohibitively expensive so sell it on Craigslist, or give it to someone with children too small to use Daddy's iMac. They can play games like Nanosaur, Bugdom, Ottomatic, Pac-Man...
The G5 is fine for Internet use, iTunes, email... in other words just about everything people do with a new $1500 iMac anyway
You can probably get at least $150. I sold a G3 iMac last year for $100.

Power Mac G4 M5183-Can this computer be rebuilt with better hardware?

I recently found my old Power Mac up in the attic, I was courious if I could rebuild the desktop or is the case of this G4 only compatable with its specific hardware. Will the G4 Quicksilver hardware work? Is it even worth trying to rebuild?

With enough money and enough time you can rebuild and update anything. The question is: "Is it worth it?" which only you can answer.
In my experience, the Quicksilver and Digital Audio can be reasonably contemporary and up-to-date performers. Be prepared, however to keep a back up (working) machine and a parts machine available if you intend to rely on these oldsters, and keep a watchful eye and a few spare dollars handy as well.
Older than this - in my view - starts to come under the heading of 'hobby' and can easily become a money pit.
You've been warned.... now go for it!
Jon

Power Mac G5: A common dilemma: to upgrade or buy new

I know there are a lot of discussions on this topic going around, but everyone's needs and uses are different, so I'd appreciate any input on my situation.
I own a Dual 1.8 GHz Power Mac G5 with only 1GB RAM and a failing 160GB hard drive.
At this point, I basically only use this machine for web browsing, iTunes, and Garageband, and am running Tiger.
I had been having some major hard drive problems so I wiped my system and re-installed Tiger , importing everything from my iBookG4 (which, I recently dropped and the screen connection has failed and is unusable except for as an external hard drive in target disk mode. it is probably too expensive to fix for what its worth so I will probably try to sell it for scrap).
Anyway, everything was ok for about a week until I opened firefox and noticed all my settings and bookmarks were gone. When I restarted my computer, my music, pictures, documents, and movies folders were all unable to be located (although my applications were fine and my hard drive still showed that the space was the same). I'm not sure if I imported some problem from my iBook or if my hard drive was just messing up again, but I've decided that I either need to upgrade or get a new computer.
Basically, I am thinking about upgrading my memory, getting a new hard drive, and upgrading to leopard (mostly for time machine). Or, possibly getting a new iMac or waiting a bit and then getting a new iMac or even (gasp) a PC (highly unlikely).
I was going to get the memory from ramjet and I was thinking of only adding 1GB to make 2GB but could be persuaded of getting more but 400Mhz DDR memory is a bit more expensive than other types. As for the hard drive, I was thinking about getting a Seagate Barracuda 7200.10 SATA 3.0Gb/s 320-GB Hard Drive with a 16 MB cache. I could pay $15 more for a 500GB with 32 MB cache but i really don't need the space and am unsure whether the cache will really help much. Seagates used to have a pretty good rep I thought, but now they seem to be getting mixed reviews, so I don't know.
Obviously, I am no computer expert, so any help would be great. Would it be worth it to spend between $250 and $325 to get the memory, drive, and leapord when I could maybe sell my G5 and my 23" apple cinema display (the old clear kind) and get an iMac? I could maybe get about $700 - $800 for the G5 and around $300 - $350 for the display. Will an iMac be faster than my G5 with the upgrades? I don't think I need a mac pro for my current uses.
Thanks for your help. Feel free to offer advice on what to do with my iBook too.
-rhineth

Memory: $60 for 2 x 1GB, I'd call that very affordable.
http://eshop.macsales.com/item/Other%20World%20Computing/3200DDR2GBP/
Disk drives: 2 x $69 for pair of WD Caviar 640GB
http://eshop.macsales.com/item/Western%20Digital/WD6400AAKS/
It is not about capacity as much as speed and quiet, cool, and how well it handles OS X. I use half the drive, other half is unformatted free space. I'd skip the Seagates. 7200.11 is current.
I expect new iMacs in '09 as they are overdue.
Hard drives you keep or put in FW case.
Current Leopard is 10.5.4 DVD but would be nice to see another DVD now with 10.5.6, $109 (Amazon, maybe less Newegg?).
iMac vs others:
http://www.macworld.com/article/133467/2008/05/imaccomparison.html
http://www.barefeats.com/harper7.html
http://www.barefeats.com/imp02.html
Sounds like three things you may not be doing or have:
SuperDuper for backups. You don't need Leopard.
Disk Warrior. Everyone, or I should say "HFS+" needs #1 disk repair utility.
Backup drives. Two backup sets you switch between, and a small "emergency" partition on one for running Disk Warrior and such.
I replace or move older drives to backup use and put new boot drive in on a yearly basis. Some new drives and memory should be all you need. A couple people even stress their system with graphics and video, and upgrading to 3 or 4 new drives revived their system so that they could hold on and wait another year.

Power Mac G4 MDD with 1.5 GB RAM slows to a crawl

My Power Mac G4 MDD has been getting slower and slower for the past couple of years, and now it takes forever to do a lot of things that it did quickly before. Today it even told me it didn't have enough RAM available to open Photoshop, even though I only had maybe three other apps open and I have 1.5 GB of RAM.
I had originally suspected the hard drive was fragmented, and I ran Disk Utilities on it, but that didn't help. Maybe I need a better disk utility? Also, the RAM message I got today leads me to believe it could be memory related.
Wat's going on and how do I fix it?

Hi
I'd start by checking the basics if you haven't already.
If you run the Activity Monitor application located in the Applications -> Utilities folder and click on the System Memory tab you can monitor the memory usage as you use your applications. You can use it to check the full 1.5GB is still being recognized and see how much you have free at any time. The following article helps explain the memory usage shown:
http://docs.info.apple.com/article.html?artnum=107918
If you click on the Disk Usage tab you can also monitor the disk space usage and see how much you still have free. Although the message refers to RAM, it may be as a side affect of not having enough free disk space for the virtual memory. I'd always make sure you have at least 5GB of disk space free for the OS temporary files and virtual memory use etc.
Finally it may be worth running the OS X maintenance scripts. These would normally get run in the small hours of the morning assuming the computer is still switched on and not asleep. However, they can also be run manually at any time, either from the command line using Terminal or from a third party front end such as MacJanitor. More information can be found here:
http://www.thexlab.com/faqs/maintscripts.html

Power Mac G4 starts, gets to gray screen and shuts down

My Power Mac G4 will start up, but after it gets to the gray screen with the Apple and the spinning gear for a minute or so the computer shuts down. I have started the computer while holding down the "C" with the 10.4 OS disc in and used the Disk Utility to run First Aid. First Aid fails stating:
__*Keys out of order*__
__*Rebuilding Catalog B-tree.*__
__*The volume Macintosh HD could not be repaired.*__
__*Error: The underlying task reported failure to exit*__
__*1 HFS volume checked*__
__*1 volume could not be repaired because of an error*__
__*Repair attempted on 1 volume*__
__*1 volume could not be repaired*__
I have attempted to start computer in safe mode but it just shuts down... no difference.

Faurot, welcome to Apple Discussions
You have directory corruption on your hard drive that Dusk Utility can't repair. DiskWarrior can probably fix your problem. DiskWarrior by Alsoft
http://www.alsoft.com/DiskWarrior/index.html
 Cheers, Tom

Power Mac G5 Dual 2.5 - Move Hard Drive to another G5??

Hi,
I'm using a Power Mac G5 Dual 2.5 w/ OS 10.5.8 with my Pro Tools 7.4.2 HD3 rig, 2 internal hard drives and tons of external FW hard drives. It's being hinky with me (every time I reboot/restart the Mac, I have to take the side cover off or it won't boot; wierdest problem ever), and being that I don't want to plunk down thousands of dollars on a new Mac and all new Pro Tools equipment, I'm hunting E-Bay for an exact duplicate of my Mac, of which there are plenty. Since PowerPC architecture is long dead, they are dirt cheap. No reason not to have a spare.
My questions are:
If I buy another Power Mac G5 Dual 2.5 machine, and swap the hard drive it comes with, and use my already functional hard drive (with the OS, Pro Tools and all related plug-ins installed), and move over my Pro Tools cards and 8 GB of RAM to the new(er) machine, will it boot up and work without me having to reformat/reinstall everything?
I also see numerous Power Mac G5 Dual 2.7 machines out there as well. What are the chances of doing the same as question 1 with this? I know the processor is different, but would my already formatted and functional hard drive care? I don't think this will work, but I have to ask.
If Question 2 is even possible, would upgrading to a Dual 2.7 even be worth it as far as noticeable speed improvement? Superior Drummer, EZ Drummer and EZ Keys are all real time plug-ins that need the Mac's processor/memory to work. They don't use the Pro Tools cards to work. So, would getting that extra 200 Mhz of processor power even matter?
The reason I ask is that reinstalling the OS and Pro Tools is not the issue; 4 hours and it's done. BUT, reinstalling Superior Drummer, EZ Drummer,and EZ Keys, along with the mountain of expansion packs, will literally take several days of work. If I could just plop my old hard drives and 8GB of RAM into a newly purchased G5 Dual 2.5 or 2.7, and not go through that, it would be AWESOME.
Thanks for any feedback on this.

Just got done making the transfer to the "new" Dual 2.7 G5 I bought off E-Bay. (yes, on Christmas Eve, because....well.... I have no life). Worked dead, solid perfect!!! I'm grinning from ear to ear right now.
I had to reset some pref's in Pro Tools (not an issue), Just got done running Pro Tools through its paces, and it works perfectly. All plug ins run (had to re-authorize Superior Drummer and some related plugins because it detected the change in system serial #, again not an issue). Other than that, it worked like it always has. I loaded every third party plug-in I could find, and every third party program I could find, and so far everything works without any issues. Only exception is Team Viewer locks up when I try to close it (have to Force Quit), but I couldn't care less right now. I use that twice a year if that, and just to have someone help me remotely.
Thanks for the info and help. This made my Holidays.

Power Mac G5 Upgrades? New to Mac

Hello Everyone, this is my first post here on apple.
I Recently got a M9020LL/A Power Mac G5 1.6ghz tower, 1 gig memory, 80 gig drive. Fresh install of Leopard 10.5. All is working well... Happy with it.
My question is, other than ram/memory obviously, are there any other upgrades i can perform?
There is no possibility to upgrade this computer to a Intel chip, is there? be kind here lol... I have a PowerPC now.
On the website below, it says there is a Dual 2 gig option for this "series" of towers, is that a possible upgrade, and if so, where do i get it or find a part number.
http://support.apple.com/kb/SP96
Thanks everyone

Bigger hard drive for sure. Maybe multiple drives.
Can't put Intel chip in PPC, sorry.
Video card?
Always a matter of what's worth the investment. I regard the transition to Intel somewhat of a wall. In that regard even a G5 is old and cannot get beyond that point. We're up against it already with the recent release of Snow Leopard for Intel only. You can upgrade the G5 until you're blue in the face but come next OS release you'll be left with a non-upgradable computer and one left running an unsupported OS. I guess what I'm saying is, consider first before doing major upgrades.
Oh, if you get a SATA hard drive you can probably use it in your next computer even if it is Intel, so that's not a waste of money.

I have a 2.4GHz DP Power Mac G5(ppc) and want to know if buying a new graphics card

I need an editing computer and don't have the money to buy a new $1500 or so system. I have a 2.4GHz DP Power Mac G5 (ppc) and want to know if it would be worth buying a new graphics card and more RAM. I'm looking at around a $300 or so upgrade. I am saving for a new computer but need a computer to edit videos for a job I have NOW. I am currently editing on a intel core duo laptop with 6 G of RAM, the computer is taking a real beating and would also like to know if the upgrade would make the G5 run faster than the laptop I am using now.

Hello,
It won't make the G5 run much faster, but we need more info please.
At the Apple Icon at top left>About this Mac.
Then click on More Info>Hardware>Graphics/Displays and report like this...
NVIDIA GeForce 7800GT:
Chipset Model:    GeForce 7800GT
Type:    Display
Bus:    PCI
Slot:    SLOT-1
VRAM (Total):    256 MB
Vendor:    nVIDIA (0x10de)
Device ID:    0x0092
Revision ID:    0x00a1
ROM Revision:    2152.2
Displays:
VGA Display:
Resolution:    1920 x 1080 @ 60 Hz
Depth:    32-bit Color
Core Image:    Supported
Main Display:    Yes
Mirror:    Off
Online:    Yes
Quartz Extreme:    Supported
Display:
Status:    No display connected
And which exact G5 please.
At the Apple Icon at top left>About this Mac.
Then click on More Info>Hardware and report this upto *but not including the Serial#*...
Hardware Overview:
Machine Name: Power Mac G5 Quad
Machine Model: PowerMac11,2
CPU Type: PowerPC G5 (1.1)
Number Of CPUs: 4
CPU Speed: 2.5 GHz
L2 Cache (per CPU): 1 MB
Memory: 10 GB
Bus Speed: 1.25 GHz
Boot ROM Version: 5.2.7f1
Also, Graphics cards are slim pickings for G5s.

Power Mac G5 Dual 1.8 Problems / Failed Logic Board?

Okay, it seems that many other people are having problems with the Power Mac G5. All I can really say to Apple is that I love Macintosh and the Power Mac G5 has been the greatest computer I have ever owned. It seems that the logic board is the main issue for most people. Maybe Apple still needs to work out some bugs, but one thing for sure is that it would really be nice if there were no more produced like this and that everyone gets their problems solved without going through it again.
Well, my G5 stopped working about a month ago. I've been really lonely and sad too... It started that the computer would randomly start, meaning that I would have to power it up and down several times until it randomly start. Other people have had these issues too. And after about 2 days of doing this it froze and now it refuses to start. I've done everything I possibly can without being a technician. I have two video cards and switching them dosen't help, my monitor works, and when I take out the ram there's no beeping. No power to keyboard or mouse, can't reset firmware, or reinstall OS or run hardware test. I reset PMU, but still no luck. I've tested both my Superdrive and Hard Drive. They both work. I have a friend with a G5 and I put my Hard Drive in and it booted up perfectly.
Fans are functional, they speed up after about five minutes with no chime at start up. Which the chime is supposed to indicate a hardware failure. My only clues are the logic board and the processors, possibly the power board. Though it seems to be the logic board most of the time. The big thing is, does Apple know what's causing this to happen to Apple fans and costumers?
I saw an earlier post with a guy who bought the same G5 a year and a half ago with three year warranty and had the logic board replaced-three times already!!!
Unfortunately my G5 is out of warranty. I bought it from CompUSA and someone had boughten it and decided to return, unused still. They gave me a the 3-year warranty extension program, but I could never activate it. I've had the computer about a year and a half myself. I bought it early June last year June 2004. But this was right before the new line-up came out. So it's the November 2003 model. It's ecspecially depressing that a week or two later I could of gotten it for $500 dollars cheaper and a newer model. Not to also mention the beautiful new Apple Cinema Displays that match the G5. Though I doubt that Apple with have any sympathy for me for not waiting a little longer. I love my G5 and I just want to hear the chime and watch my 20" Apple ADC Display turn on. I don't live anywhere close the any Apple Stores to take it in for diagnostics.
So I'm really in a tunnel of doom. I'm thinking of buying the logic board from mac-pro.com for $700. I heard Apple wants a $1000, but I don't know. Though driving it in to the Apple store isn't gonna be easy for me. Even so, I'm afraid of how costly it will be. I need to know what's defective and needs replacement more than anything. I only wish there was some way I could activate my 3-year warranty extension program. Well, I suppose that's really enough of my pitiful crying.
Does Apple or anyone care to help me? I would be forever so happy if I could get my G5 working again. Thanks to anyone who'll attempt to help. You too Apple.

Hey Everyone -
Have you looked into the iMac G5 repair exstension Program for video and power issues? Posted on Apples website....The iMac G5 repair extension program for video and power issues applies to the first generation G5 computers that have video or power-related issues as a result of specific component failure. If your iMac G5 is exhibiting any of following symptoms: scrambled or discorted video, no video, no power, your computer may be leigible for repair, free of charge. This article was posted on October 21, 2005.
My computer was freezing up, not booting up, locking on the blue page, static looking when trying to boot up, etc. I took it in to the Apple Store yesterday, and they will be replacing the board within the next 2 weeks. Although my have an extended warrenty, the replacement program is avaliable for certain first generation iMac G5 models that were sold between approximatrely September 2004 and June 2005 freaturing 17- and 20-inch displays with 1.6GHz and 1.8Ghz processors.
If Apple or an Apple Authorized Service Provider determines that your iMac G5 computer is eligible as part of the program, the repair will be covered by Apple for up to two years from the original date of purchase even if your iMac G5 is out of warrenty. This is a worldwide Apple program.
It's worth looking up the article, it list the serial number ranges that apply. Worth a look!

Power Mac G5 PPC Screen Freeze Turbo Fan Issue

Hello...
I've read most, if not all of the related posts; however, I have not seen any definitive answer to this issue.
My, almost mint condition, Power Mac G5 PPC has recently started the screen freeze, turbo fan, won't boot issue that seems to be prevalent with these models. I've tried almost all of the suggested troubleshooting fixes and have had no luck. My most recent attempt was to try and start in single-user mode (holding SHIFT + S at startup) and I received the following error screen then turbo fans: http://www.thishateofmine.com/Assets/photos/appleCPUpower.jpg
Remember...this is a PPC, so why am I getting an error referencing Intel CPU Power Management? This leads me to believe the OSX 10.5.8 I've been running has installed system resources for non-existent CPU's and is causing a conflict. This would be a major coding error on Apple's behalf, would it not?
I never had this issue when running any previous OS version and this computer had been running spectacularly.
It has only been used in my clean, smoke-free, home recording studio and if it werent' for a few blemishes left by external HDD's, this computer could pass as brand new. There is very little internal dust and I have kept it clean with electronics approved compressed air. I have not removed anything to get at the PSU area for cleaning, though.
If I could get it to boot from the original DVD's and install up from Panther, I would. Based on the error message I'm receiving, I do not believe this is a logic board, RAM, CPU, etc... issue. The computer will boot into open firmware and function fine, but not the OS; therefore, this would be an OS problem, right? Is that not a logical mental path?
This HAS to be a known issue and have a resolve that is NOT logic board and/or CPU replacement related.
Any help would be greatly appreciated.
BTW...please read this as a positive communication from a frustrated (knowledgeable enough to be dangerous) user. I just want my G5 back.

After plugging in the G5 PPC, as it had been unplugged for several days, here are last night’s efforts:
With only the original, main Hitachi Deckstar 400GB HDD in slot 1, I attempted to boot normal, boot holding SHIFT + COMMAND + V, boot holding COMMAND + S and boot to the original install DVD, all with no joy. In my original post I incorrectly stated I was attempting to boot into single-user mode by holding SHIFT + S, which resulted in the screen displaying the OP’s linked image. In attempting to boot into (actual) single-user mode and verbose mode, I get two different text messages – and have taken screen photos, but have not been able to upload yet – both of which stop with “DART enabled” and then do nothing else with no cursor capability, only to result in turbo fans and having to hold the power button down to shut down.
Next I ran (again) the Apple Hardware Test from the original install DVD and everything passed.
Feeling confident the hardware is all in working order, I used my brother’s Macbook Pro 3.1 (OS v10.6.8) as the host to mount the G5 PPC in target disk mode. The PPC’s HDD mounts up with no issues and everything is accessible, so I shut down and swapped the original HDD with a 500GB Western Digital Caviar SE16 that did not have an OS on it, restarted to AHT DVD and ran test again with everything passing.
Now I reconnected the target disk mode setup, formatted the PPC’s WD HDD and installed Leopard on it while in TDM from the MBP3.1. Everything installed, restarted will still TDM connected, MBP3.1 started up with the PPC’s HDD as the startup disk, went through all the typical initial install information and registration and voila I’m back in target disk mode with the PPC’s HDD as my boot disk and MBP3.1’s HDD on the desktop. Everything’s accessible, functions and looks good.
Keeping in mind I’m only dangerously knowledgeable regarding computers, I’m thinking I should be able to shut everything down and now boot the G5 PPC from the internal WD HDD I just installed the OS on, right? Wrong. All I get is the infamous folder with a flashing question mark.
Help!!! (…please???)
BTW…as it has been mentioned in a few posts, but is one thing I have not done yet, I thought it worth mentioning. I have not replaced the internal battery, but the last time I was able to get the computer to boot to the internal HDD and run for a short period of time, after being unplugged for several days, I did have to re-enter time, date, location, etc… info. The actual last time I got it to boot, I did not do this, as it only got as far as loading the desktop before freezing, but the time was correct. Didn’t get a chance to check date and location, as it froze almost instantaneously.

Power Mac G4 got moisture in it. Now it won't power on. What could of been damaged?Help!

I recently had my Power Mac G4 in my trunk and for some reason, there was moisture on the outside of the tower. Now it will not power on. There was no moisture on the motherboard but just around the power section. Could I have damaged anything else? Where should I start troubleshooting at? Is the hard drive damaged as well? Help.......

The area that is most vulnerable is also the area you can't easily see: the underside of the logic board where most solder connections are made. It would be easy for water droplets to condense on and around some of the projecting connectors. If a drop carried across two or more connectors and you turn it on....
I'm not too worried about the hard drive; they are usually well sealed against moisture.
It possible that the act of powering up the computer did damage. Normally, when one knows the computer is damp, you wait several days with the computer in a dry place to allow time for all moisture to escape.
I'd let it dry out completely before turning it on again. That might help as long as the first attempt to poweru pdidn;t fry something taht was damp. Once you get it going, see if there is a red light on the logic board. That tells you the power supply is working. As the PS is pretty open to the environment and has high voltage, hopefully if anything did fry, it's the replaceable, rebuildable PS.

Why can't I open and retrieve my files from iPhoto and my address book after importing the files from my Power mac G5 to my new Mac Pro? I get a warning that says the new OS on my Pro doesn't open files from a Power Mac. Any idea how I can fix this?

Why can't I open and retrieve my files from iPhoto and my Address Book after importing the files from my Power Mac G5 to my new Mac Pro? I get a warning that says the new OS on my Pro doesn't open files from a Power Mac. Any idea how I can fix this?

For your addressbook, export the files to vCard on the PowerMac, then bring them over to your Mac Pro. For your iPhoto, copy the Users -> yourname -> Pictures folder to your Desktop on the Mac Pro, and open iPhoto on the Mac Pro holding the command and option keys. Select the library file from that Pictures folder and open it. It should import all the pictures into iPhoto as part of the rebuild process. Other PowerPC to Intel migration issues are covered here: https://discussions.apple.com/docs/DOC-2295

Power Mac G3's Worth Rebuilding?

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